The English Mistletoe Shop, the retail website which I’ve jointly run for many years now, is not supplying mistletoe grow-kits this year. For me this will be the first winter in 20 years that I’ve not supplied these kits, originally developed for the (now defunct) Tenbury English Mistletoe Enterprise website, so it is a significant change of tack for me. I am missing the build up to it already, but other projects are looming and everything has to stop (or at least pause) sometime.
It will (and already has been according to some emails) be a disappointment for some but there are other options out there. Not as good perhaps, as we’ve always been very conscientious with our kits and the berries in them, but certainly options!
So I thought some advice might be timely, especially as we’ve heard a few horror stories over the years of what some, er, rivals (some of whom we’ve been confused with now and then) have sent out in the name of mistletoe growing. Here goes:
-
- If you’re buying berries to plant, get them in early spring. Not in December. So don’t go for anyone trying to sell you planting berries now. Order now by all means, but only if the berries are sent in spring.
- Check, before you order, if the berries will be freshly gathered from the plant in spring. Don’t fall for any talk of storing them for you, or by you – fresh berries are always best. If they have been stored they may well be dead. The seeds in the berries need to be in light (which they get through the translucent berry skin) throughout the winter. I’ve heard of some sellers who store December berries in fridges and freezers, thinking they ‘will do’ in spring. They won’t, the seeds will be dead. A few days in a dark package in transit is ok, but a few weeks in the dark will kill them (remember, that fridge light goes off when you close the door!).
Check how the berries will be sent. They should be in a rigid container, otherwise they’ll just arrive as mass of sticky mush – we’ve heard stories of jiffy bags arriving with a mass of crushed berries in them. Whole berries, not smashed-up ones, are what you need. Ideally cut from the parent plant with a little bit of stem left on them – i.e. literally whole. If they’re pulled off the plant they are immediately damaged and leak sticky juice and you’ll just have a sticky mess. What you want, on delivery, and to ease handling when planting (tricky enough with one sticky berry, let alone many stuck together), is intact separate berries.- When you get your berries store them in a cool light place (not the fridge!) until you plant them, and within a couple of weeks at most.
When you plant them do it as the birds do (the Blackcap method is best); removing most of the sticky glue and pressing the seed onto the surface of a tree branch. Do not cut nicks in bark or place seeds under flaps in bark – that’s nonsensical garden lore and an excellent way to kill your seeds whilst also damaging your tree. Any mistletoe supplier that gives this as ‘expert’ advice is not an expert!- If needing fuller instructions have a look at the advice here: https://mistletoe.org.uk/mp/growing-managing/#growing
Or, if you don’t want to try getting berries in spring but you will have berries from mistletoe bought for Christmas, you can try storing a few until spring. But not in the house or the dark. Best to clip some branches, as soon as you’ve bought your mistletoe, that have berries attached and keep those sprigs in a safe place outside or in the window of a shed, until spring. They will shrivel, but cold and light will help ensure the seeds stay alive. A brief wetting (only a few minutes worth) in spring will help ensure they’re still sticky enough to use.
And, last but not least, be patient – mistletoe takes several years to start growing more than a few millimetres. This is a surprisingly difficult point to make. I’ve lost count of the number of people who, despite having this stressed to them, still write to say that they had assumed they’d failed, as nothing obvious grew, but have been astonished, 4 or 5 years later, to find they have thriving mistletoe plants. Be Patient!
(and, by the way, for readers outside northern Europe, the advice above applies to the classic European mistletoe species Viscum album. Other mistletoe species (and there a lot of them around the world) may have differing requirements, though most will be fairly similar to this in principle.)